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Essay on symbolism in literature
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This passage in the novel The Bean Trees is complex, symbolic, and significant. It starts with a storm arriving towards Taylor and her friends while they observe the event. A storm can symbolize negativity or a cleansing of emotions. Despite the rainstorm, Taylor and the others are surprisingly in a joyous mood, dancing around with each other. The characters feel a relief from all that has happened, including Esperanza, who attempts to commit a suicide in the previous chapters. On the first few chapters, Taylor’s mindset has been focusing on being independent, but this passage shows a change about her. During their dance, Taylor reflects on how she has never been so happy before, therefore Taylor‘s happiness proportionally relates to her relationships …show more content…
“…it broke into hundreds of pieces so that the rain fell here and there from high clouds in long, curving gray plumes.” The hyperbole about the storm produces a wild sense of the surroundings. Kingsolver uses the onomatopoeia and simile to describe appearance and the sound of the storm. The first-person point of view also assists on expressing Taylor’s senses and emotions. In describing Taylor’s feelings for Estevan, Kingsolver combines them into a one complex sentence, which displays the exhilaration that Taylor feels. Most of all the paragraphs’ structure is similar, adding consistency to the passage. The consistency makes it easier for the readers to follow and understand the message and concepts that the author conveys in the novel. Additionally, Kingsolver uses contrast to bring out the mood among Taylor’s group. In the beginning, she makes a deadly ambience with the storm and lightning, yet the characters are very high in spirit and energy to a point in which they dance under the storm. It enhances the characters’ emotion to attract the attention of the readers, which makes it more noticeable just like light being brighter in the dark. Kingsolver also uses this passage as a chance to build up for a shocking event unexpected by
By extension, the ability of a character to see through clouds is a measure of the character’s ability to see past physical constructs that hamper one’s ability to see truth that is shrouded in mystery. Victor has a strange fixation with the eagle that is capable of “[soaring] amidst the clouds” (110). The creature’s fascination with eagles is linked to their ability to soar among clouds. Shelley uses the juxtaposition of positive and negative diction to emphasize an eagle’s ability to break through the physical. While soar indicates ascension, clouds denote mystery and confusion, two opposite forces: a one-way movement (ascension) and a multitude of directions (mystery).
It is a large topic of discussion whether legality or morality is more important. Barbara Kingsolver poses this debate in her book The Bean Trees. This book takes place in the 1980s in Putnam County, Kentucky, and begins with Taylor, the main character, leaving her old house behind to start fresh. Taylor does not get the fresh start she is looking for and instead is given an unwanted responsibility of raising a child. Along her journey to find home, Taylor meets many new friends who help her. Through the illegal ways that Turtle Esperanza and Estevan are taken in by Taylor and Mattie, Kingsolver proves that with regard to family, morality is more important than legality.
The Bean trees shows how relationships may lead to hurt and devastation. The book starts out with the fact that Taylor does not have a father because he was not a good person and left them. “And for all I ever knew of my own daddy I can’t say we weren’t, except for mama swearing up and down that he
One might think, based on the cultural importance of individualism in the United States, that a person can lead a successful life without any companions or loved ones. However, in The Bean Trees, author Barbara Kingsolver shows otherwise. Through the development of a flowering plant motif in this novel, the world is shown to be a place where people need others who love and care for them to live a fulfilling life. The motif of flowering plants develops meaning through the author’s continued use. Kingsolver introduces this motif in the chapter “The Miracle of Dog Doo Park” when the wisteria blossoms out of the seemingly hostile environment of the polluted, parched park. The word “miracle”
Didion use of specific diction leads to her expression of the ominous nature of the storm and its unexplainable consequences it has on those it touches. Explicit choice of words throughout such as “uneasy,” “frets,” and “tension” depict the seemingly natural and illogical response one would have toward the Santa Ana Winds.
Taylor Greer is the protagonist in The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. Taylor Greer lacked a sense of belonging in her hometown in rural Kentucky. She did not want to become the average pregnant girl and yearned for excitement in her life. She decides to start over by
Through this idea, Trethewey explains how this photograph looks beautiful on the outside, but actually reminds her of all the suffering that happened inside during the storm. The photograph only captures the surface level, while below it is other problems. The ugly parts are hidden behind the beauty to attempt to hide it from others. Trethewey describes the storm that forces her family into the house for days, then moves to describe all the damage the storm has done outside and to her family. A couple lines that truly stand out are, “why on the back has someone made a list / of our names, the date, the event: nothing / of what’s inside – mother, stepfather’s fist?” (Trethewey). Through these lines, Trethewey reveals the abuse that happened in her home during the ice storm. The photograph captures
Firstly, the narrator gives little detail throughout the whole story. The greatest amount of detail is given in the first paragraph where the narrator describes the weather. This description sets the tone and mood of the events that follow. Giving the impression that a cold, wet, miserable evening was in
Dickens exquisitely uses foreshadowing as a tool to give the reader a way to have some kind of idea of the evens to come and the give the reader some kind of knowledge of how the peasants intend to carry their plans of destruction out by using metaphors. The turmoil between the aristocracy and the peasants has been summed up into the metaphor of the storm. This metaphor truly helps the reader have a grasp on the violence and destruction going on at that time because a Revolution, much like a storm, causes demolition to all things around it. This metaphor is used to enhance the reading experience by cluing the reader in on the minor details of the plans of the Revolutionaries, so they are not confused in later chapters.
From the resemblances in human's action to human's mentally, Blum "communicate in an artistic manner" (Gilmore 7) that mesmerizes the readers throughout. Critics claim that "the unpredictable and dangerous storms provides a framework" ("The Stormchasers" PW), that Blum uses "twisters as cunning metaphor for storms of a more human kind" (Tipping). Overall, most literary critics agree that Blum artistic combination of storms and human together "beautifully render" (Kirkus Reviews) the story captive. Following storms "is how [Karena will] find her brother" as brother has an unnatural addiction to storms. Blum states early on that the location of Charles is wherever there are tornadoes as his condition causes him to feel the storms. This representation only sparks the beginning of Blum metaphor; it is later in the story that the reader finds the connection between the characters' actions and what they are chasing. From the beginning, Blum starts the story with a festive, vibe, the cold breeze start to a storm. The phone call from the doctor and the discovery of the Whirlwind contract clouds. The adventure with the storm chasers thunders the novel with excitement of "punch[ing] the core and [arriving] in the bear's cage" (Blum 48). The discovery and flashbacks signify the calm before the storm, the sudden relaxing moment before the finale: the
The Bean Trees is a novel which shows Taylor’s maturation; it is a bildungsroman story. Taylor is a developing or dynamic character. Her moral qualities and outlook undergo a permanent change. When the novel begins, Taylor is an independent-minded young woman embarking on an adventure to a new world. She has no cares or worries. She is confident in her abilities, and is determined to make it through life on her own. As she discovers new things and meets new people, Taylor is exposed to the realities of the world. She learns about the plight of abandoned children and of illegal immigrants. She learns how to give help and how to depend upon the help of others. As she interacts with others, those people are likewise affected by Taylor. The other developing characters are Lou Ann Ruiz, Turtle, and Esperanza. Together they learn the importance of interdependence and find their confidence.
In “The Storm”, Chopin uses the sudden onset and tumultuous nature of the storm to parallel the affair between Calixta and Alce, as well as the subsequent return to calm that embodies the relationships between the lovers and their spouses. In “The Storm”, Chopin uses the sudden onset and tumultuous nature of the storm to parallel the affair between Calixta and Alce, as well as the subsequent return to calm that embodies the relationships between the lovers and their spouses. In “The Storm”, Chopin uses the sudden onset and tumultuous nature of the storm to parallel the affair between Calixta and Alce, as well as the subsequent return to calm that embodies the relationships between the lovers and their spouses. In “The Storm”, Chopin uses the sudden onset and tumultuous nature of the storm
The terrestrial imagery in this passage develops Baptiste’s character and unfurls the theme of the natural world. The passage begins, “Louise, he whispered. Her name was thick in his mouth.” Using Louise’s sense of hearing, the author creates the image that Baptiste appears to have an alluring demeanor. The adjective “thick” makes it sound like his words are swells of smoke emerging from his throat. Ceasing to offer Baptiste a response, Louise instead chose to focus on how “she could feel a wet heat rising from his body.” The words “wet heat” depict the image of Baptiste's body producing a haze of steam off into the torrid summer air. This reminds me a rainy day when rays of sunlight poke through a curtain of gray clouds and raise water droplets into the sky through
It is also stated that she has never seen him alone. The storm starts to increase outside, reflecting the sexual tension inside. The storm's sinister intention appears when "The rain beat upon the shingled roof that threatened to break an entrance.". It seems that the storm knows what is going on between the two and is threatening to break in and ruin their chances. They move throughout the house and end up in the bedroom "with its white, monumental bed, its closed shutters, looked dim and mysterious.
...nguage as an effect of his accidental destruction of a little butterfly. A list to emphasise the text and to create a tense feeling can also be superb. ‘ Can’t we take it back, can’t we make it alive again, can’t we start over can’t we - ‘a key feature to this is repetition. This enables the text to be logged in to the reader’s memory exhausting the matter that it is an important issue. The very last line, ‘There was a sound of thunder,’ creates a heart-throb situation wanting the reader to empathise the death of the main character – Eckels.